“We believe that free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity!”@larry_kudlow

I met Larry Kudlow at the Rainbow Room on Wednesday, November 16, 2005, at the Pajamas Media rollout party. Pajamas Media was having a momentary identity crisis, and we found out almost then that it was making its debut as OSM: Open Source Media instead.

There were a hundred people or so at the event, so I’m sure Mr. Kudlow doesn’t remember me, but here’s how it went:

Milton Friedman and Louis Rukeyser were instrumental in my transformation from a socialist to a capitalist, and I must partly thank PBS for that. As an economics/business major, I had read Friedman’s books, and they were pivotal to my change. (Years later, PBS aired Friedman’s Free to Choose series – which you can now watch on YouTube for free by courtesy of the Palmer R. Chitester Fund). While I was still in college, I started watching Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week (W$W), which aired on PBS every Friday at 7:30PM. Friedman was a guest in the show.

I was a fan of the show for its entire run, from 1972 to 2002. There’s even a photo of me with my newborn son watching W$W on the day he was born.

In 2002 Rukeyser moved to CNBC, and he ended his show in 2004 due to his battle with cancer.

Larry Kudlow was a regular panelist in both shows, and, at the Pajamas party, I went over and introduced myself. Mr. Kudlow looks exactly as he does on TV, he’s shorter than I expected, and was (characteristically) very well dressed.

I started by asking him to tell Mr. Rukeyser, if he had a chance, that he was in my family’s prayers and convey our best wishes. Mr. Kudlow was most gracious, and he described how Mr. Rukeyser was the only person who would invite him to their show after Mr. Kudlow’s recovery following a scandalous and very public fall from grace due to his addictions. Mr. Kudlow also explained his conversion to Catholicism, as Catholics took him in during the time when he struggled to pry himself away from his disease. It was a remarkable conversation, and before we parted he mentioned again he’d convey my message to Mr. Rukeyser, whom he saw often.

CNBC started a show, Kudlow & Cramer, which I didn’t watch too often because I find Cramer annoying. Later on Kudkow got his own show, and I watched frequently (mostly while preparing dinner).

The Kudlow Report (and its earlier version, Kudlow and Company) was, without a doubt, the best moneypolitics show on the air. Differing, opposite, views were discussed civilly, and with clarity. It is entirely to Mr. Kudlow’s credit that he maintained such high standards on each and every broadcast.

Last night was The Kudlow Report’s last show. During his closing speech, Mr. Kudlow gave witness to his faith, movingly saying he “replaced addiction with faith.” He will continue as a CNBC contributor in other shows.

I wish Mr. Kudlow the best, and thank him for inspiring and encouraging Americans to prosper and grow.

If you believe in miracles, as I do, this looks like a miracle. If you have faith in free-market capitalism, as I do, then somehow this faith is being rewarded by a more durable and resilient free-enterprise capitalism than many of us thought possible only one year ago.
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But the fact remains that businesses large and small, along with family households, have performed the necessary belt-tightening and deleveraging corrections made necessary by the Great Recession and its bubbled-up speculations. These free-enterprise actions have led to great productivity in our mostly free economy. Again, the results will show in next year’s mini boom.

A political belt-tightening also has been taking place. The Tea Party movement came on the scene in 2009 to revolt against big-government spending, taxing, and controlling. This movement is so reminiscent of California’s Prop 13 tax revolt of 30 years ago, which led to the Reagan revolution. It may well be the backbone of an anti-Washington revolution in 2010, ushering in a much more conservative Congress and a chastened Obama White House.

It remains to be seen whether this political revolt can stop the big-government assault on free enterprise. But I have as much faith in the political markets turning the ship of state around as I have in rising year-end Treasury bond-market rates forcing the Bernanke Fed to shape up and ship out of its wild money-printing ways.

In other words, free people and free markets have always been the best guarantors of American economic growth. Because I believe this, I am an optimist going into the new year.

I am in the process of writing an extended article on one of the most depressing news: Chavez is not only raiding the the home of Globovision president Guillermo Zuloaga but is closing the last independent TV station left in the country. This increases the likelihood that true news reporting will soon come to an end in Venezuela.

In the meantime, here are some very interesting articles,

Larry Kudlow speech: “One man, one woman, can make a huge difference.”

9. “It’s worth recalling that ultimate power of declassification belongs to the president himself. President Obama has used his declassification authority to reveal what happens in the interrogation of terrorists. Now let him use that same power to show Americans what did not happen thanks to the good work of our intelligence officials.”

Cheney is pushing Obama to declassify documeents relating to the information gained from terrorist suspects who were subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. This puts Obama in a bind. If he does so, it prolongs an argument he wants to move on from and prolongs the Obama vs Cheney meme that is distracting and doesn’t really help him. if he doesn’t, he looks like he has something to hide.

How about that idea of sending the Gitmo detainees to supermax prisons? Supermax too full

Why has America been so foolishly complacent about—nay, even complicit–in the recruitment of jailed African-American men by radical Islamists? Perhaps, for a variety of reasons, this particular prison population may already have been brainwashed to hate Jews, Israel, and America. `

Why has America failed to understand that, just as Islamists routinely prey upon the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the vulnerable–and on women and children in Muslim countries–to become human bombs, that Islamists will surely, inevitably, prey upon their counterparts in America?

If heaven is retiring at 55, leaving the apartment each mid-morning to sit in the local coffee shop, and then protesting on weekends about my lower than anticipated pension cost of living increase, then I would prefer hell.

Via Maria, the “smart car” comes short on mileage. There are a few of these scooters with a big chassis driving around The Principality and all I can think of is what would happen to the passengers if someone with a larger vehicle ran into them.

I’ll be driving my Volvo until the duck tape doesn’t hold it together anymore, thank you.

In shoe news, the Bernardo folks are celebrating. I spent most of my teens in Puerto Rico wearing that brand of sandals and still own a pair (bought new a couple of years ago) that I wear frequently in the summer. They are also offering good money for 1940s, 50s and 60s Bernardos, if you have any at home.

Make no mistake: TARP is a corrosive, corrupting, and demoralizing influence on our banks and the rest of the economy. It is a symptom of the slippery slope we are sliding into with Team Obama’s big-government, bailout-nation vision and agenda. The Friedman mess is merely symptomatic of this growing problem inside our system.

It is time we all opened our eyes to the mess before us. Enough already. We can do much better.